The report found consistently low levels of trust in energy decision-making authorities. In the communities surveyed, 62% of respondents said they don’t trust public authorities to make decisions about energy projects.

“The forces driving community conflict aren’t necessarily the ones that many decision-makers think,” said lead author Michael Cleland, senior fellow at the University of Ottawa. Local issues, including the environment, health and safety concerns, emerged as what matters most to community members, while climate change wasn’t considered to be as substantial an issue.

“Energy decision-makers — including policy-makers, planners and regulators — need to ensure that communities are engaged at the right time, in the right way and with a real commitment to take local concerns seriously,” Cleland says.

“What makes this tough is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” says Trevor McLeod, director of the Centre for Natural Resources Policy at the Canada West Foundation. “Every community is unique, so the decision system must be designed to ensure communities are heard.”

“We need to be creative about how to strengthen local confidence in regulatory decision-making. This could include expanding membership on regulatory boards. People want to see people like them in decision-making positions,” said University of Ottawa professorMonica Gattinger, chair of the Positive Energy project.

The research team did in-depth interviews with a range of local residents, public authorities and opinion makers. Public opinion polling was also conducted to assess views of all community residents. The communities studied were diverse, featuring a mix of remote, rural, urban, Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations.

The case studies revealed that the debate over energy projects is often hobbled by lack of understanding about the scope of regulators’ decision-making power. Many community concerns are fundamentally about values, such as the qualities of a rural environment or traditional lifestyles. That means they may be difficult, if not impossible, to address through existing regulatory processes.

Canada West Foundation (CWF)

The Canada West Foundation focuses on the policies that shape the West, and by extension, Canada. We provide practical solutions to tough public policy challenges facing the West and Canada as a whole, at home and on the global stage.

University of Ottawa’s Positive Energy project

The University of Ottawa’s Positive Energy project uses the convening power of the university to bring together academic experts and key decision-makers from industry, government, Indigenous communities, local communities and environmental NGOs to determine how energy resources can be developed in ways that garner social acceptance.